SANTA ANNA –  GUM INVENTOR

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the man who, if he had not been born, we would not have chewing gum!  Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón was born on Feb. 21, 1794.  He is better known as simply Santa Anna.

                In 1866, Santa Anna was exiled from Mexico and living in New York City.  He hired James Adams to be his interpreter and secretary.  Adams noticed that Santa Anna liked to chew on a tropical vegetable.  The pieces from the plant were called “chicle”.  When he left for Mexico, Adams asked him to leave his supply of chicle.  Adams added flavors to the substance and invented chewing gum.  The first flavor was licorice and the gum was called Black Jack.  It was an immediate hit.  He created the Adams Chewing Gum Company and found a ready market for his product.  Later, he merged several chewing gum companies into the American Chicle Company.  One of his salesmen came up with the idea of wrapping the gum in a hard candy shell and thus was born “Chiclets”.

–  https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/12/man-put-chicle-chiclets/#:~:text=In%201899%2C%20Adams%20created%20a,American%20Chicle%20Company%20in%201914.